A Crusade
by vox draconis
Summary: Complete AU. James, the second-born prince, joins a crusade to unseat the heathen rule of foreign holy land Hogwarts.


This story has two creditors, if you want to call it that. J. K. Rowling, for the names and... the  
  
vague character usage I performed. I make no money and make no judgements with this fic. The  
  
second is to my high school German teacher, who told the story upon which this is based.  
  
A warning. This will contain slash. Nothing graphic at all, but there will be mentions of it in the  
  
main storyline.  
  
( Prelude. )  
  
The Wizarding world was in trouble.  
  
Not the intense, cruel evil overlord is striking horror and fear into the hearts of mortal men while performing mass homicide kind of trouble, but another kind. Something more subtle.  
  
You see, for many years human wizards lived in the shadow of terror wrought by the so-called  
  
forces of darkness. The world was still relatively new in terms of a world that is wide, so naturally fate brought various beings into contact. The friction was the nasty bit.  
  
After an era consisting of the main threat wrought by the seafaring giants whose tactics and sheer power resulted in wizards more or less falling dead before them, a more peaceful time had come. The great cities that had been scattered in the face of the giant threat were reforming, the witches and wizards of the world no longer spread among countless tiny villages.  
  
Here lied the problem. As the forces of the wizard world became more coherent, their enemies grew fewer and fewer. And yet the society continued unfazed, wizarding families expected to raise warriors to fight for the cause of the wizarding human race. Eventually, these second and third and fourth and so on and so forth children accumulated as extra children were prone to do, leaving the world with a bit of a problem.  
  
You see, all these surplus people were all trained for the more or less sole purpose of violence. With nothing to fight, they began to seek their battles among their own ranks. And when that proved boring, they made nice little armies and took to conquering and/or pillaging neighboring cities, since they had nothing much of temporal power. Why, do you ask?  
  
First born children were the ones who had, for centuries and centuries, been the one who would continue the family line and name, bearing it to glory forever and ever. With the rather high rate of mortality, the averaging wizarding family would go through a first born or three before one stuck to living and found someone with whom to continue this process. The extra kids would either die before leaving their childhood, or go be helpful soldiers, of which there weren't many since they tended to die pretty quickly against giants. Squish.  
  
So, you see the problem? Well, the leaders of the wizarding world saw it too. And while it didn't spell total annihilation, it did make things rather inconvenient, what with the random raids during their tea parties. Being rather and relatively educated, and with time on their hands, they hatched a plan to rid themselves of this threat, and maybe get something out of it for themselves. Win-win situation, see?  
  
What? You don't see? Well, of course you don't. I haven't told you yet. Git.  
  
Their plan was quite wonderful. Far, far away, in a land unknown to the general masses of the wizarding world, there was a great city called Hogwarts. Various sects and groups and the like claimed it as the center of their origins, so it had been for a long time a major city of conflict. One group eventually won out, however, and was living peacefully in within its borders.  
  
And so the call to arms passed from town to town, village to village, mouth to mouth! The city of Hogwarts had been too long captured by these heathen forces. For the glory of Merlin, in the name of the great Nimue, they were to reclaim the land of their ancestors, the progenitor of magic itself! Each (person without a child who wasn't a firstborn son) was called to fulfill their duty to their people and their magic and reclaim Hogwarts!  
  
Predictably, it worked. All these extra offspring had grown up being told of heroic quests that they'd eventually be called for, so finally having one dumped on them was like a dream come true! Or something. Anyway. The long and the short of it was it worked, and they began to travel via boat (Nobody really was absolutely sure of where There was in relation to Here, so a Portkey was some years in the making still.) to the land of Hogwarts.  
  
( Begin. )  
  
In one small kingdom lived a king and his two sons. While he loved them both more than life itself, the king could tell -- just like everyone else -- that his second born son James was the one who was born to rule. James was a magnificent wizard, handsome, strong and powerful. But fate had dictated that his elder brother, Sirius, was the one who would ascend to their family throne.  
  
Even Sirius could see James' valor. Certainly, he wouldn't be a bad king, but... James had something. Something beyond simple charisma. But there was nothing to be done. The laws that said the first born son would come to rule were both written and unwritten, transcending simple tradition to be a well-respected superstition and honor.  
  
One day, their father died as nameless fathers tend to do, leaving Sirius to take the crown. Around this time, the stories of the Hogwarts Crusade were now reaching their little kingdom, igniting James with some sort of furor to take part. If he stayed at his birthplace, he would be a wizard regaled and honored for the defense of his people ( He was something of a goody two-shoes, so James wouldn't fall into the evil extra offspring profile, you see ). But the calling for the cause of good was too compelling to pass up. Sirius knew what he had to do.  
  
A long time ago, a great emperor had given their ancestors a magnificent wand for their role in defending the empire. It was long and made from a light-colored variety of wood, and was quite powerful in battle. But its true power lie in legends. You see, set in the hilt of this wand lie a large ruby.   
  
This ruby was an amazing example of a gem. It glowed like blood in torchlight, and flashed like fire under the sun. When the ruler of their family charged into battle, wand waving wildly, their soldiers would always be able to see that ruby no matter where they were on the battlefield, for when it was waved across the sky, the light would catch in that ruby and light the sky with an arc that looked like a raging fire. It was believed to be enchanted, for the armies that were led by those that wielded the wand always came to victory, as the combatants would never lose heart so long as they could see the flash of the ruby wand.  
  
On the day when James would leave their kingdom for Hogwarts to fight in the crusade, Sirius came to him and greeted his beloved brother.  
  
"Jimmy, we both know that you should be the one wearing this crown. You would make a magnificent king..."  
  
"But I'm not. We've had this conversation, Siri. And it doesn't matter; I'm going to Hogwarts to win our family even more glory."  
  
Well, the conversation wasn't going as well as planned, so Sirius just jumped to the point.  
  
"I want you to take the wand with you, to Hogwarts. I cannot give you the crown, so I will give you this."  
  
James was speechless. But everyone always said if the wand left the country, it would fall! He couldn't possibly be expected to bring about the kingdom's destruction? He told Sirius this, to which he replied --  
  
"It's just superstition. Take the damn wand, Jimmy. It's just a symbol of our family. Think of it as a way to make sure everyone knows our family is fighting the good fight, since everybody somehow knows the damned ruby's story."  
  
To make it short, Sirius eventually forced the rubied wand into James' hand and sent him on his way. There had been a number of battalions that had already made their way to Hogwarts, and many more that were heading there around the same time as James, so he joined one of the traveling groups that were heading to the boat.  
  
He didn't dare take the wand out here, still not believing that Sirius would give it to him. Plus the fact that some of these people didn't look to savory, and he was paranoid someone would take it. The bastards.  
  
Eventually, they reached the boat. There was already another battalion waiting for a boat across the ocean, so James had to wait. He got to know the others he would be traveling with during this time, and well...  
  
It's not that they were bad per se, just... misunderstood and lacking a direction in life. They were thoroughly amused by his almost blatant naivety, performing ceremonial spells in respect to Merlin each morning. He didn't swear, didn't drink...   
  
Eventually, they boarded the boat and were on their way. While it was a magically enchanted boat, it still went rather slow, so it was a few days before they would reach land again. During this time, his fellow wizards became a bit... uncomfortable because of James. He was just so goddamn pure. He made them all feel guilty as hell, enough so that they joined him in the morning's ceremonial spells each morning they awoke on the ship.  
  
After a few days, they set land in the harbor of Hogwarts and everyone exited the ship. While everyone else grumbled about finally being back on dry land, James stood shocked at the city.  
  
It was... amazing. Nothing he had ever, ever seen before, nothing he could even imagine. The people wore these strange robes, light and flowing; the buildings seemed as well made as his own castle, even if they were simple peasant housing.  
  
And the marketplace!  
  
It was almost enough to send him into shock. So many vendors selling such beautiful things, spices and perfumes mixing in the air and making him heady with it all. Foreign items he had only seen on the rare merchant that passed through town after traveling to distant lands. It was incredible.  
  
But after he gathered himself, he really looked around. The crusading forces were all stationed in one section of the town, and were easily recognizable by their appearance. So everyone else was his enemy... ?  
  
They certainly didn't look like the child-eating, Crucis-casting devils in the stories. Sure, they looked a little more tan and had a tenancy to be blond and spoke a strange language... but they looked just as human as he did. Standing in the middle of the marketplace, James truly began to think, and like all people that think for themselves, James began to doubt.  
  
Perhaps this crusade wasn't as righteous as he had been expecting? 


End file.
